Generally, a typical electrical connector includes some form of dielectric or insulative housing which mounts a plurality of conductive terminals. The terminals have contact portions which are engageable by the contacts of a complementary mating connector or other connecting device.
A wide variety of electrical connectors are designed for mounting to a printed circuit board. Such connectors conventionally include a dielectric housing, such as a unitarily molded plastic housing, adapted for mounting to one side of the board. The housing typically includes a front mating face for mating with the complementary connecting device and a terminating face from which tail portions of a plurality of terminals exit the housing for termination to circuit traces on the printed circuit board. The terminals normally include mating portions for mating with the terminals or contacts of the complementary connecting device, and the tail portions projecting from the rear of the housing are interconnected, as by soldering, to circuit traces on the board and/or in holes in the board into which the tails are inserted.
In one type of printed circuit board mounted electrical connector, the housing includes an elongated body portion, with one or more mating portions of the housing projecting forwardly of a front face of the body portion. The terminal tails and, possibly, mounting portions of the housing project from a rear face of the body portion. Some printed circuit board mounted electrical connectors are designed for mounting at an edge of the board. The connector housing typically engages the edge and has a mounting portion for mounting to a top surface of the board. For instance, the aforementioned elongated body portion of the connector housing may run along the edge of the board, with the mating portions of the housing projecting freely away from but generally parallel to the board.
One of the problems with elongated electrical connectors of the character described above is that the elongated body portion of the dielectric connector housing has a tendency to bow or warp during fabrication thereof. In particular, the housing, including the elongated body portions thereof, typically is unitarily molded of some type of plastic material, such as LCP or the like. This problem is particularly critical with surface mounted electric connectors wherein the terminal tails should be maintained in a common plane for surface connection to the circuit traces on the top surface of the printed circuit board. If the molded plastic housing has a bow or warp, some of the tail portions may be spaced from their respective circuit traces on the board which, in turn, can result in defective or totally incomplete connections between the terminal tails and the circuit traces during permanent processing of the connector onto the board.
The present invention is directed to solving the above problems and providing an electrical connector which has a housing configuration that facilitates molding the housing without bowing or warping thereof.